


Heat Transfer

by twunk



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Better Than Canon, One Shot, Platonic Relationships, Repressed Memories, Sad, Sad Ending, also i put so much effort into this help me, like i really though about their charas more than i should have, loz has been a special interest most of my young adult life, rip my ass, spoilers if you havent gotten through the ruta arc most likely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 18:38:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11213907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twunk/pseuds/twunk
Summary: “Could you tell me about your memories with Mipha?”A one shot about Link struggling with his lost memories and the pressure to be the same hero everyone once remembered him to be.





	Heat Transfer

**Author's Note:**

> man nintendo ily but why do you gotta do my boy link like this and give him a shit ass character in your smash hit game legend or zelda breath of the wild  
> im so tired of your shit that i wrote over 1,000 words about it in two separate nights at 1am   
> anyway this ends on a super angsty not so good note but! worry not i might update later depending on if im being a lazy ass fuck or not or if i find the insp to actually do it ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯   
> but i hope you enjoy lololol

Zora’s Domain was always cold, no matter the season. 

Link was sure there was some type of science behind this, but he was never the academic type. There was only so much attention he could force into reading through Zelda’s textbooks, even if he was incredibly bored or if she was incredibly demanding of his attention.

“You never know when these things become useful, you know. I’m surprised you never learned this,” she’d say, halfway through an hour long lecture on astronomy. Link never knew how the stars would ever affect him all the way up there in the sky, or how the planets would either, but Zelda sure knew more about it than him, so he wouldn’t complain. 

Besides that, he reveled at the chance to not be pressured to speak at any point for a long time, so he just gave an affirmative grunt and sat up a bit more so that she’d continue reading about whatever obscure orbit pattern she somehow had a vast knowledge on without his input. 

Of course, he doesn't remember any of these impromptu lessons. 

Even if he did, her efforts to make him a scholar have failed. 

100 years in the future, he’s sitting underneath Zora’s Domain, legs hanging over the foundation of the citadel, struggling to recall the steps to the water cycle. Maybe, he thinks, it will help him understand why Ruta could generate enough water to drown all of Hyrule, but he can’t remember if there’s a step after evaporation or if that’s where it just links back to the rest of the cycle. He also can’t decide on whether or not it’s relevant to Ruta’s abilities. 

There’s probably just some kind of magical battery in there, he muses, that’s how these things tend to be. He’s overthinking it, but it’s mostly on purpose. He feels like he needs to keep his head busy to avoid...something. He’s been so good at avoiding it recently that he forgot what it was. 

His legs are growing numb from the cold water. 

"Ah, there you are!" 

Link turns his head up to catch Prince Sidon swan diving from a bridge above him, making a huge splash as he hits the water, causing Link to throw up his arms to take cover. The flecks that do hit him make him jump.

“Ha! Sorry about the splash,” Sidon says as he makes his way over to Link, his body snaking through the water with ease. “I weigh quite a lot.” He slides up onto the stone island Link is sitting on and throws his arms on it to prop himself up.

“Am I bothering you?”

"No...no, not at all." Link responds, head a bit fuzzy from the shock of the water and Sidon’s dramatic entrance. 

"Good!” Sidon lifts his body up onto the island next to Link, scales shimmering and wet. “You aren’t leaving soon, are you? I wouldn't want to waste your time, I’m sure every minute is golden.”

Link shakes his head, trying to crack a friendly smile. He hopes it doesn't look too fake. Sidon is part of what he’s trying to avoid, he knows that. This makes him feel guilty. 

"I'd like to thank you again for helping with Ruta. I'm sure I can speak for every zora here when I say so - I mean - I should in some cases, I am their prince after all." He grins then stops to look up towards the citadel with a quiet reverence. He looks back at Link with a softer smile."I'm sure Mipha would be proud of you too."

Mipha. She’s the other part. This brings on even more guilt. Even the memories that he has of her bring no warmth to his heart. When he looks at her statue in the plaza, he can feel this slow numbness take over his body, the guilt and confusion eating at him. Wouldn’t you remember someone you were engaged to fondly? Wouldn’t seeing their face bring a smile to yours?

“Yeah…” Link looks away from Sidon into the water. He can feel himself starting to get overwhelmed, like the quiet rumble of distant thunder before a storm. He wishes these emotions could be carried away by the stream but they stay with him, slowly sinking their claws into his arms. 

“It’s good to see the elders come around and see the good in you. They were the ones most attached to Mipha out of all of us, because they remember her with such clarity. Even I...well, I do remember her, but never saw the use in getting angry at the hylians.” 

Sidon clasps his hands around each other. 

“Which brings me to a question I had for you - if you don’t mind.”

A sense of dread fills the pit of Link’s stomach. He knows he won’t be able to give Sidon a pleasant answer to his question. But he couldn’t bring himself to turn him down.

“No...what is it?” His mouth is getting stiff and his words fall out like pebbles. He takes a shaky breath.

Sidon pauses, rubbing his thumb along the back of his other hand. 

“Could you tell me about your memories with Mipha?” 

Link takes an even shakier breath and runs his hand through his hair. 

“I-I-I…” He stutters, his words barely audible above the waves. 

 

He takes his legs out the water and crosses them, pressing his hands into his skin, trying to bring himself back down from the intoxicating air of guilt his head is in. He’s even colder like this and starts to shiver.

He finds himself on a thought that has been lurking around the back of his head for a while. It rises to the top, like a lizalfo slowly rising to the surface of the water, deadly and set out to kill him. 

He wishes that he was never put into that deep sleep, that he had died at Ganon's hand those 100 years ago, that he wouldn't have to struggle to remember names and faces of people that he's been told he loved. He wishes he wasn't so easily upset by this, that he could just move on to the next part of his quest without needing all this time to recharge, he wishes Sidon was a little less happy to be near him so that he didn't feel so guilty about wanting him gone. The thought that he had been avoiding all this time. 

He can’t bat away this thought with a sword. He can’t banish it with any weapon, no matter how powerful. It doesn’t hurt him with wounds that you can heal up with bandages and a warm bowl of soup. These thoughts will kill him nice and slow, eating at him from the inside out.

“Are you alright?”

He wishes he could talk right now so that he could lie and tell Sidon he’s going to be alright.


End file.
